A lot of people asked why I won’t mention the mechanic’s name or shop. There are many reasons but I won’t get into them as they are related to my faith. However, here is a reason most would appreciate.

In statistics, to draw a trend about a population one must have a random sample. The more units in the sample there are, the more accurate the results will be. However, generally a minimum of 20 units is required to draw any “accurate” results (it also depends on how many units there are in the population).

My experience with that mechanic was just one unit. It’s inaccurate to draw conclusion about the mechanic or shop from my experience only. The reason others have recommended him is that they were satisfied with his work. Initially, I was satisfied with his work too and recommended him, but, to me, the overall experience is bad. Bad not as in he was a bad person, or difficult to deal with. Bad as in he misdiagnosed two problems that cost me $700 and a lot of time and worry. I would’ve been much happier if he just said, “Sorry, I really don’t know what’s going on. And I have no solution to these problems.”

He did some good work on my car such as fixing leaks, and he did give me a good price. But I still ended up losing $700. But doing good work is not doing a favour to me: I needed him to fix my car, and he needed to make money. It’s a business relationship-- we simply traded my money for his work. I didn’t do him favours, and he didn’t do me favours—it’s his job to fix my car, and I have to pay him for it. But it’s not my responsibility to pay him for making mistakes. So I don’t think I should just forget about his costly mistakes because he did some good work—it’s his job to fix the car properly, just as it is my job to do proper mechanical design—but I would mention it when he does a lousy job because he is not supposed to.